Minimal Restriping For Data Center Expansion

A system and a method are proposed to minimize restriping during data center expansion. Minimal restriping technique takes into account the old data center topology, and aims to minimize restriping between the new topology and the old topology. A low complexity minimal restriping algorithm proposed is used to minimize restriping. The topology solution is also guaranteed to have high network capacity, because it satisfies superblock ports, spineblock ports,and superblock-spineblock level balancedness constraints. The constraints may consider the number of links in original topology and the algorithm may determine the optimum new topology that minimizes restriping. The disclosed technique may not cause significant bandwidth reduction, and thus greatly shortens the data center expansion time

Analysis of Abnormal Gait in the Diagnosis of Early Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Review

Early detection of neurodegenerative diseases can increase the possibility to access to treatment, and assist in advance care plan-ning. At present, most of the gait researches focus on the design and application of recognition tools for disease diagnosis, such as recording the walking and movement status through wearable sensor devices, while, relatively less non-contact machine vision is used to measure gait. The non-contact gait detection method is characterized by the advantages, including the absence of human cooperation, non-invasive nature and so on, which is also suitable for long-distance perception. In this paper, we focused on some non-contact analysis methods for abnormal gait, and it is hoped that it can provide guidance for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases

Modelling the fate and bioaccumulation potential of organic chemicals in China

An extensive array of chemicals are used in industry and commerce, many produced in large volumes, but their fate in the environment and corresponding exposure to organisms (including humans) has only been measured for a limited number of substances. Modelling tools have been demonstrated to be an economical alternative to measurement data for the assessment of chemical fate and exposure. Therefore, many fate and bioaccumulation models have been developed in Western countries while progress on the development of tools and legislation are relatively far behind in China. In this thesis, the application of modelling tools in environmental fate and exposure assessment of organic pollutants has been explored in China. The first aspect of this research was the adaptability of Western dietary exposure models to the Chinese population. In Paper I, three established Western-based exposure models were used for China using specific Chinese dietary scenarios and modified human characteristics to explore their potential adaptability to be used for the Chinese population. The second aspect was to explore the possibility of extending existing bioaccumulation models to a wider range of organic pollutants by incorporation of newly developed poly-parameter linear free energy relationships (pp-LFERs) for individual biological phases in Paper II. Compared to traditional single parameter(sp) KOW-based (sp-LFERs) methods, the pp-LFERs only indicated limited advantages when evaluated with measurements, implying that the choice of approach should be based on other factors beyond methodology of calculating partitioning coefficients (e.g.,accuracy of input data and uncertainty from biotransformation). The studies described in Paper III and Paper IV took polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a case study, to comprehensively evaluate and demonstrate the ability of a global dynamic fate model （BETR-Global） linked to a bioaccumulation model (ACC-HUMAN) in the reconstruction of historical trends and predicting future of emission trends and exposure profiles for the Chinese population. Meanwhile, controlling sources of intentional and unintentional emissions were thoroughly explored within China in Paper III. Paper IV more focused on human exposure under the combined effect of emission trends and dietary transition for the Chinese population. The delayed peak time of the human body burden of PCBs has mainly been caused by rapid dietary shifts and on-going emissions from sources, such as imported e-waste in China. The Large uncertainty in the prediction of human body burdens suggests that the choice of model system could be relevant for exposure assessment and that the model should be tailored to the system of interest. Finally, preliminary suggestions to conduct effective controlling measures were also made for the policy makers

Biphenyl-bridged 6-(1-aryliminoethyl)-2-iminopyridyl-cobalt complexes: synthesis, characterization and ethylene polymerization behavior

A series of biphenyl-bridged 6-(1-aryliminoethyl)-2-iminopyridine derivatives reacted with cobalt dichloride in dichloromethane/ethanol to afford the corresponding binuclear cobalt complexes. The cobalt complexes were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis, and the structure of a representative complex was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Upon activation with either MAO or MMAO, these cobalt complexes performed with high activities of up to 1.2 × 10⁷ g (mol of Co)⁻¹ h⁻¹ in ethylene polymerization, which represents one of the most active cobalt-based catalytic systems in ethylene reactivity. These biphenyl-bridged bis(imino)pyridylcobalt precatalysts exhibited higher activities than did their mononuclear bis(imino)pyridylcobalt precatalyst counterparts, and more importantly, the binuclear precatalysts revealed a better thermal stability and longer lifetimes. The polyethylenes obtained were characterized by GPC, DSC, and high-temperature NMR spectroscopy and mostly possessed unimodal and highly linear features

Can poly-parameter linear-free energy relationships (pp-LFERs) improve modelling bioaccumulation in fish?

A wide range of studies have characterized different types of biosorbent, with regards to their interactions with chemicals. This has resulted in the development of poly-parameter linear free energy relationships (pp-LFER) for the estimation of partitioning of neutral organic compounds to biological phases (e.g., storage lipids, phospholipids and serum albumins). The aims of this study were to explore and evaluate the influence of implementing pp-LFERs both into a one-compartment fish model and a multi-compartment physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) fish model and the associated implications for chemical risk assessment. For this purpose, fish was used as reference biota, due to their important role in aquatic food chains and dietary exposure to humans. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) was utilized as the evaluation metric. Overall, our results indicated that models incorporating pp-LFERs (R2 = 0.75) slightly outperformed the single parameter (sp) LFERs approach in the one-compartmental fish model (R2 = 0.72). A pronounced enhancement was achieved for compounds with log KOW between 4 and 5 with increased R2 from 0.52 to 0.71. The little improvement was caused by the overestimation of lipid contribution and underestimation of protein contribution by sp-approach, which cancel each other out. Meanwhile, a greater improvement was observed for multi-compartmental PBTK models with consideration of metabolism, making all predictions fall within a factor of 10 compared with measured data. For screening purposes, the KOW-based (sp-LFERs) approach should be sufficient to quantify the main partitioning characteristics. Further developments are required for the consideration of ionization and more accurate quantification of biotransformation in biota